Armine's term likewise ended, and his examination being over with
much credit, he wished for nothing better than to resume the pursuits
he had long shared with Fordham. He had not Jock's facility in
forming intimacies with youths of his own age. His development was
too exclusively on the spiritual and intellectual side to attract
ordinary lads, and his home gave him sufficient interests outside his
studies; and thus Fordham was still his sole, as well as his
earliest, friend outside the family. Their intercourse had never
received the check that circumstances had interposed between others
of the two families, Armine had spent part of almost all his
vacations with the Evelyns, the correspondence had been a great
solace to the invalid, and the friendship grew yearly more equal.
Armine was to join the Evelyn party when they went to the seaside, as
they intended to do on leaving London. It was the fashion to say he
looked pale and overworked, but he had really attained to very fair
health, and was venturing at last to look forward in earnest to a
clerical life; a thought that began to colour and deepen all his more
intimate conversations with his friend, who could share with him many
of the reflections matured in the seclusion of ill-health.
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